Apple makes a move for in-car dashboards and infotainment with 36 new patents

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Apple has been granted a slew of patents covering man-machine interfaces to improve car instrumentation and telematics. Combine that with Apple’s discussion of iOS 7 in the car at the June World Wide Developer Conference and you’ve got an ambitious program to gain market share in the car, just as Microsoft has tried to do with its Sync joint venture with Ford and variations of the Windows CE/Automotive operating system. Will this cause automakers to renew their love affair with Apple? Block them? One thing’s for certain: Discussions continue to rage internally as automakers struggle to build infotainment interfaces that work.

Apple received Patent No. 8,482,535 for a “programmable tactile touch screen displays and man-machine interfaces for improved vehicle instrumentation and telematics.” The core technology covers the center stack, the area of the dashboard between the driver and passenger, and an area onto which images are projected, most likely by an LCD display. Other features include tactile feedback, a head-up display in the armrest, screens that respond to laser pointers, and a camera that detects the driver’s head position.

If this sounds like a visit to Disney’s Epcot Center where you see a display from 10 years ago projecting what technology will be like 15 years from now, there is a reason. Apple says the patent filings build on work and a “multitouch” patent filing dating to 1992 by Canadian inventor Timothy R. Pryor. Apple says it has rights to the original technology and patent, “Method for providing human input to a computer.”

The screen described in the patent might have ridges and indents to guide the driver’s fingers while still keeping eyes mostly on the road. The patent also discusses transparent knobs and sliders overlaid on the screen; they illuminate when they’re needed, then go dark.

What is Apple up to?

If this was anyone but Apple, the patents might be dismissed as old technology refreshed. But Apple is Apple, and almost everything Apple does is perceived to be logical and easy to use, something most car center stacks are not.

Apple has already affected the car cockpit with iPod, forcing automakers to move (slowly) toward USB jacks. The Apple Siri Eyes Free technology replicates your iPhone or iPod’s screen on the car’s center stack display; the phone controls are disabled and the driver uses voice input (Siri) and the center stack controls. A dozen automakers have signed on to use Eyes Free starting in the next few months.

What’s missing is a center stack and infotainment system that is made by Apple, not connected to Apple. That has potential and risk. Most likely the result would be high quality and easy to use. But it would mean the automaker is ceding one of the few areas left in the car to make a difference compared to other brands.

Is touch the best interface for a car?

To the extent Apple is embracing a touchscreen interface, it may encounter the same problem touch has already. Touch looks great in the showroom, but out on the road when the car bounces around, a touchscreen gets harder to use, and customers often find they prefer physical knobs and buttons. Cockpit control wheels from Acura, Audi, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz that were initially criticized are gaining favor now that drivers have got past the acclimation period.

Even if Apple doesn’t go as far as creating its own infotainment system, it is certainly working hard with iOS 7 to get Apple devices to do part of the work providing information, entertainment, and navigation to the driver. The Chevrolet MyLink infotainment system uses an iPhone to replicate navigation onto the dashboard LCD of the Chevrolet Spark and Chevrolet Sonic. There, Apple isn’t replacing the center stack, but one of its apps replaces embedded navigation, although in this case on sub-$20,000 cars that would be unlikely to draw many buyers of $500-$1,500 in-dash navigation.

Apple’s Eddy Cue talked about iOS 7 at WWDC last month, and portions of iOS 7 code indicate WiFi hooks could be one more way to connect to the car, in addition to cables and Bluetooth.

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Putting an Apple product in your vehicle ruins a perfectly good vehicle.
Also, what kind of vehicle is shown in the picture? I didn’t know Infinity made head units..

kissmyass69

Oh god please no… just…no…

Postulative

Touchscreens are a nightmare for the driver. You get no feedback on what you’re doing, so need to look down (and take your eyes off the road) in order to achieve anything.

Surely gadgeteers can come up with something better.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1223563048 Angel Ham

Two things come to mind:

1.- Don’t use its built-in maps.
2.- Just to replace a button Apple will keep your car for at least two weeks.

Dan Andersen

I think you’re mixing Apple up with the car manufacturers. If the latter, your comment applies. For years now Apple has had very reliable over-the-air updates and will soon release a new version of iOS with fully automatic (but user-controllable) over-the-air updates.

On the other hand, it’s a good thing we’re not talking about Android-based functions: Those would only get updated if the seller feels like it, and that’s almost never…

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1223563048 Angel Ham

Better something that can be easily fixed/replaced than an overpriced idevice that demands propietary cables/connections/interfaces.

Dan Andersen

As far as I know, the only proprietary interface Apple currently uses is its Lightning interface on its iOS devices. Great connector, by the way—physically secure, very compact, and not orientation sensitive. I wish all connectors were that way…

hmmm

The very definition of an iSheep. USB, my friend, USB. Its what the entire planet uses. You wouldnt have to wish “all connectors were that way” because all connectors ARE that way.

Dan Andersen

No, they are not, my friend. USB connectors are not physically secure and they are orientation sensitive.

Xplorer4x4

” Apple says it has rights to the original technology and patent, “Method for providing human input to a computer.””
There goes the internet..hell there goes computing in general, Apple owns computing.

Ryan

They’re actually in the process of designing what they will eventually term an ‘innovative driving experience.’ Prior to that, there will be years of rumor mills popping up prior to some major announcement, just to have it shot down by Apple. Then, one day, someone who works for Apple will be found driving a brand new car, one that has never been seen before, which will then be carjacked in a very public place after he has allegedly taken it off the Apple campus without permission. Leaked photos will be sold to the highest bidder, and technophiles will post a website with a tear down of the now-overly-rumored ‘iCar’ which suddenly disappear hours after it was published. Another year will pass and then Tim Cook will announce the brand new auto, with the slogan ‘Drive. Different.’ The actual car itself will be entirely electric, and sell for roughly $100,000, but will in fact only cost $50 to make, because it is mass-produced in China. The first generation of the iCar will be fabulously popular with the younger generation, with people camping out in lines to be the first person they know that has the newest iCar. It will be available in one color: black. That’s the only color that cars need to be. Within the first week, claims of the iCar overheating and burning houses down because of faulty wiring will be ignored and instead videos of newscasters talking to entitled teenagers who didn’t get an iCar for Christmas will go viral. Then, reports of updated software causing the navigation systems from Apple Maps to stop working will be responded to with claims of people just ‘holding the steering wheel wrong.’ Fast forward a year, and the iCar S will be released, with all new battery saving potential, like actually turning itself off after 5 minutes (which you have to set yourself; it isn’t a default setting.’ It will also now be available in black AND white, because everyone knows people like variety. Fast forward another year, and the ‘New iCar’ will be released… but it still won’t let you copy and paste. Tech news outlets all over the world will be running stories on how Apple will be suing automakers Ford, GMC, and BMW, claiming that they all are using technology first patented by Apple. ‘We were the first company to patent the mode of transportation with a roughly box-shaped unit resting on 2-4 wheels. Clearly these companies are using our intellectual property!’ Then Samsung releases its own car, which is actually pretty cool, works well, and runs on Android. Microsoft, claiming to be taking their time to develop and refine their product, also releases its own all-electric vehicle, but no one will have heard of it.

dns7950

You hit the nail right on the head I think! Only a couple things you forgot to mention:

The first iCar will be touted by Apple as “a magical new invention”. The first model will be missing several prominent features that have been in automobiles for decades (bumper, fenders, wipers, lights, horn), which will be patented and called “revolutionary new inventions”, then slowly added to later generations to ensure everybody gets the newest one. The car can only be charged with the proprietary Apple charger, which costs $20,000. The car will be made out of aluminum and glass, and will shatter in even the smallest of minor fender-benders (a term which won’t really apply, since the first model won’t have fenders.), forcing you to go out and buy a new one. The electric motor on the iCar will only be 10 hp, but all iCar drivers will insist “it just works” and it is “the fastest car ever”. The car will surprisingly have a stereo, but it will be censored so that only “Apple Approved” radio stations and CDs can be played.

http://dbakeca.com Dbakeca Italia

very nice:)

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